Archive for the ‘feminism’ Category

The ninnies at the NYTimes were asking, “Does make-up hurt self esteem?“, a question that I find particularly grating, for a number of reasons, the main being that self-esteem is meaningless without accomplishment.

No, make-up does not hurt self-esteem. What cosmetics do (and not only foundation and lipstick, but also hair grooming products, skin moisturizers, and nail polish) is show men and the world that you value yourself enough to present yourself in a favorable light.

Which, by the way, is exactly why overdone or unflattering make-up broadcasts a poor message about you.

The evolution from “enhances sexual attractiveness” to “doing it for yourself” is definitely a regressive step, and by regressive I here mean “regressing to age two”, but it’s the next step which reveals the presence of a neurosis: recruiting science as a justification for behavior: “Study finds makeup makes you appear more competent.” Can’t wait to read about that study in a Jonah Lehrer book. Ugh. So here’s the evolution of feminist theory, take notes: “I want to look better” to “I want to feel better about myself” to “I want people to think I am better.” Madness.

Go read the whole long rant, and slap on some make up, will ya!

With the POTUS coming up with 23(!) executive actions in one day, using children as props, you’ll need the make-up.

(Yes, I use all the products shown in the Amazon links, and, yes, the Garniers are actually good for your skin, and you’ll support this blog.)

Busy day here, while everyone is blogging about Pres. Obama’s budget speech.

However, an equally interesting subject is this Manifesto For Conscious Men, which starts with an apology for being men. You can watch the YouTube in its full unmanly self-conscious groveling glory here.

Conceived, redacted and read by a guy name Gay. Really.

The whole thing is not only wrong from the get-go (starting with that photo of Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s Beata Beatrix – yes, I know my Pre-Raphaelites – on the Facebook page), it totally misses the point. As Bill Whittle says in the Trifecta,

The antidote to brutal men is not weak, femminine men. The antidote to brutal men is strong, good men.

Now, whether the Manifesto is actually “the most elaborate pick-up line ever”, I’ll leave for Citizen Renegade to decide.

Planetary forces are so enormously powerful that attempts to control the environment must often fall a far second to simply being able to survive what Mother Nature throws in humanity’s way. Man has survived on this planet by adapting; by storing away in times of safety the food, energy and resilience that are needed to recover from catastrophes he can neither foresee nor prevent.

As regular readers of this blog know, I think the compact fluorescent lightbulbs are hazardous, inefficient, a ripoff, and, worst of all, make you look like Lilly Munster. Rand Paul lets it rip on “people who believe in some choices but don’t let the consumer choose what’s in their homes”:

The American Academy of Pediatrics has rescinded a controversial policy statement raising the idea that doctors in some communities should be able to substitute demands for female genital cutting with a harmless clitoral “pricking” procedure.

“We retracted the policy because it is important that the world health community understands the AAP is totally opposed to all forms of female genital cutting, both here in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world,” said AAP President Judith S. Palfrey.

The contentious policy statement, issued in April, had condemned the practice of female genital cutting overall. But a small portion of statement suggesting the pricking procedure riled U.S. advocacy groups and survivors of female genital cutting.

And cultural relativism scored one, on those who can’t tell an earlobe from a private part:

In the April statement, the group raised the idea that some physicians should be able to prick or nick a girl’s clitoral skin in order to “satisfy cultural requirements.” The group likened the nick to an ear piercing.

By the way, there is a federal law already prohibiting FGM:

The AAP also clarified nicking a girl or woman’s genitals is forbidden under a 1996 federal law banning female genital mutilation.

Through the article you see that term, mutilation, changed to “cutting”, and “circumcision”, as if those euphemisms described the barbaric practice of mutilating a woman’s genitalia for the single purpose of preventing her sexual enjoyment for the rest of her life.

It boggles the mind that the AAP actually went along with FGM in the first place.

And I want to know, where are the liberal feminists? Where’s their outcry?

At no time would what she wore be more significant than on the night of November 4 2008, when, win or lose, the eyes of the world would be upon the Obama family as the four of them processed on to the stage in Grant Park, Chicago. If Michelle had dressed herself and her daughters for defeat, she could hardly have chosen anything more saturnine. Seven-year-old Sasha was dressed from head to foot in black: black dress, black hose, black shoes. Ten-year-old Malia was just as black about the legs, but her dress was blood-red. Any colour is better than pink, but these robust choices hardly strike one as girly. The girls’ odd outfits were clearly chosen as foils to their mother’s dress, which was all black with an eye-burning red panel that splattered itself down the front like a geometrical haemorrhage, held in by a criss-cross sash of black. The red extended upwards almost to the neckline, and downwards to mid-thigh, petering out top and bottom in a sort of cast-off splatter. The effect of the strong contrast was to turn a mere frock into a poster in the most disturbing colours known to man, the colours of chaos. The juxtaposition of a rectangle of red on a black field is what we might expect to find on a flag or a shield. Coral snakes and venomous spiders signal their destructive potential by the display of similarly violent contrasts.

Ugly dress, and odd choice to pair it with a cardigan. Why not wear a more becoming dress with sleeves instead?

The coral snakes and venomous spiders analogy is bad enough, but Greer is not above being catty,

Her kitten heels make sure that her bigger head never out-tops her husband’s.

Mwwweeewww!

One thing the media (which so touted Sarah Palin’s $150,000 in clothes) is not mentioning is that Narciso Rodriguez’s ready-to-wear dresses retail between $1,500 to $2,000 each.

Alice Walker’s daughter has learned many of life’s lessons from experience, and there is much we can learn from her. This article speaks to me in more ways than I can explain in this blog because I too am surprised every day by what a blessing it is to be a mother. While some think Rebecca Walker is getting too much publicity saying thoroughly conventional things, those conventional things need to be said.

You see, my mum taught me that children enslave women. I grew up believing that children are millstones around your neck, and the idea that motherhood can make you blissfully happy is a complete fairytale.

Motherhood can, and indeed does, make you blissfully happy. Every day I spend with my son is a day I am blessed.

Rebecca Walker continues:

In fact, having a child has been the most rewarding experience of my life. Far from ‘enslaving’ me, three-and-a-half-year-old Tenzin has opened my world. My only regret is that I discovered the joys of motherhood so late – I have been trying for a second child for two years, but so far with no luck.

I was raised to believe that women need men like a fish needs a bicycle. But I strongly feel children need two parents and the thought of raising Tenzin without my partner, Glen, 52, would be terrifying.

As the child of divorced parents, I know only too well the painful consequences of being brought up in those circumstances. Feminism has much to answer for denigrating men and encouraging women to seek independence whatever the cost to their families.

Make no mistake: no matter how much you try to fool yourself, having a child means that is your top priority. Children need a mother and a father who are totally committed to their child(ren)’s well being. Rebecca Walker suffered because of her mother’s misplaced priorities,

If you, gentle reader, think this would have a lesser effect on boys, you are grievously mistaken.

Like most teenage children of divorced parents, Rebecca looked for love by having sex, which makes the child less emotionally demanding of their parents while at the same time giving the illusion that the child in turn has become more independent, and after all, feminism is all about girls’ independence, isn’t it?

But here’s reality: after she got pregnant at age 14 she had an abortion,

Although I believe that an abortion was the right decision for me then, the aftermath haunted me for decades. It ate away at my self-confidence and, until I had Tenzin, I was terrified that I’d never be able to have a baby because of what I had done to the child I had destroyed. For feminists to say that abortion carries no consequences is simply wrong.

Notice how Rebecca knows it was a child she destroyed, and she had to make that decision when she was fourteen years old.

Feminism has devastated the moral character of two generations and is leaving millions of profoundly wounded people in its wake. It’s time we recognize that.